KADUNA – The Federal Government and Kaduna State Government have set in motion a machinery to improve groundnut farming for economic diversification.
The State Director, Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA), Mr Tijjani Isiyaku disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Kaduna.
Isiyaku said that the Federal Government and Kaduna State Government were exploring the viability of dry season groundnut farming to achieve this.
He said that the major challenge was inadequate seeds to meet the demand of farmers.
According to him, the Federal Government as part of its contribution will ensure the provision of improved variety of seeds.
He said that the dry season farming would be mainly for the production of seeds in order to address the challenge.
“A lot of farmers are interested in the new variety of seeds, they have even started booking.
“Already, varieties of groundnut seeds where distributed to farmers for trial on their farms about two months ago. “We went round the farms and we discovered that the trials were successful,’’ he said.
The director said that through the ATA, the ministry had also introduced the groundnut value chain in order to revive its production in the country.
He said that the present administration was committed to reviving all the economic potential of the country which had been abandoned, such as the groundnut pyramid period which contributed to the economic growth of Nigeria.
Isiyaku said that the agency also planned to support farmers with other farming inputs such as fertiliser at a subsidised rate. (NAN
